In the Neukölln district of Berlin, two primary school children were attacked and seriously injured. The police arrested a suspect. On Wednesday afternoon, the police in the capital confirmed a corresponding report by the newspaper “B.Z.” at the request of stern.
The victims are therefore a seven- and an eight-year-old girl. Both were taken to the hospital, one is in mortal danger, police said. The attack happened around 3:15 p.m. on the grounds of the Evangelical School on Mainzer Strasse. It cannot be ruled out that other children witnessed the attack, said a police spokeswoman. Berlin’s Senator for the Interior, Iris Spranger, announced that the crime was indeed a knife attack.
The identity of the arrested person is not yet known. The police were initially unable to say anything about the background and the course of the attack on the two girls. A homicide squad has taken over the investigation. According to the German Press Agency, the school was cleared and the area cordoned off. Parents picked up their children from school while onlookers stood outside the barriers, according to a reporter. On-site photos show heavily armed police officers at the school campus in the middle of a residential area.
Interior Senator Spranger was shocked by the fact: “I am deeply shocked,” wrote the SPD politician on Twitter. “The perpetrator was arrested. I now trust the police and the judiciary. My thoughts are with the children, their families and classmates.”
According to their own information, the Protestant school in Berlin-Neukölln is attended by more than 800 pupils from the first to the 13th grade. The school foundation of the Evangelical Church Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia is responsible for the facility, which was founded in 1948.
Sources: Police Berlin, “B.Z.”, Evangelische Schule Neukölln, Iris Spranger, news agencies DPA and AFP
